Editorial

Citation

Caan, W. (2015), "Editorial", Journal of Public Mental Health, Vol. 14 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-06-2015-0024

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Public Mental Health, Volume 14, Issue 3.

Woody Caan

At this time of year, my thoughts turn to World Mental Health Day (on 10 October). The theme for 2015 is Dignity in Mental Health.

The Department of Health has recognised that individual well-being cannot be seen in isolation from wider society (Caan, 2015) and this issue of JPMH has several papers on connecting the person with their society. Inkster and Sule even offer a new perspective, the “Street Epidemiologist”, using the medium of hip hop music to profile changes in clandestine drug use! Best investigates the influence of online networks of “Friends” at a time when the National Clinical Director for Mental Health has reported “I am a great fan of Twitter and I think it is important to use the power of social media [Twitter, YouTube] to disseminate the learning and to share knowledge” (Health+Care, 2015). However, the power of that medium may be less than one assumes. In response to a question about Facebook from a young boy, Angela Merkel (the Chancellor of Germany) responded:

• “Facebook was an asset for contacting people but it was better to meet up with friends in real life to socialise” (Dearden, 2015).

Over five years, the proportion of English adults who believe “the best therapy for many people with mental illness is to be part of a normal community” (Time to Change, 2014) has risen from 70 to 80 per cent. One mechanism for connecting people with their community is social prescribing, analysed in this issue by Kilgarriff-Foster. Adolescence is a critical time for social learning, and teenage experiences of marginalisation and internal meta-stereotypes (e.g. believing “Society thinks that people like me will never get anywhere in life”) can be very destructive (Issmer and Wagner, 2015). Research in this issue by Buchholz asks adolescents, their teachers and parents whether a young person with mental illness should disclose it. Sadly, world-wide, distancing, ridicule and physical violence are still common experiences for people with mental illness (e.g. in India: Mathias et al., 2015).

Sometimes mental health professionals can learn from Merkels' good advice, above, “to meet up with friends in real life”. During 2015 I invited to the new Public Mental Health Network which is chaired by Peter Byrne at the Royal College of Psychiatrists (see details at: www.rcpsych.ac.uk/policyandparliamentary/publicmentalhealthevent.aspx). This includes stakeholders with a wide range of interests and personal experience. Our network should be able to respond in the coming year to a challenge from the Chief Medical Officer for England:

• “Taking the lead from the WHO, we encourage England to blaze a trail in public mental health” (Mehta

et al.

, 2015).

A better evidence base for practice needs to be built up. Recently in England, the Public Health Research Programme invited proposals for public mental health research, including research on “interventions to reduce social isolation”.

When the Academy of Social Sciences asked Marks (2013) to describe his Five Ways to Wellbeing, he began with Connect. Good practice in social research will be essential to understand our theme of Dignity in Mental Health. Even in the distressing area of managing violence, new guidance from NICE (2015) stresses human rights, participation and collective action. Good research on promoting dignity needs to have a strong ethical foundation. Working across our many disciplines, the Academy of Social Sciences (2015) has developed a shared approach to research ethics:

• “All social science should respect the privacy, autonomy, diversity, values, and dignity of individuals, groups and communities”.

Connectors and transformers

Human beings are not wireless,

We need Another with which to connect.

Many planners are quite clueless –

Good growth arises from care and respect.

Rooted sciences link new and past,

To join together those whom “plans” forsake.

Rooted people are unsurpassed

In forging links that time cannot break.

References

Academy of Social Sciences (2015), “Academy adopts five ethical principles for social science research”, available at: https://acss.org.uk/developing-generic-ethics-principles-social-science/academy-adopts-five-ethical-principles-for-social-science-research/ (accessed 1 June 2015).

Caan, W. (2015), “Because you're worth it”, Perspectives in Public Health, Vol. 135 No. 1, p. 15.

Dearden, L. (2015), “Angela Merkel on Facebook: ‘It’s nice to have it, like it's nice to have a decent washing machine'”, The Independent, 6 June, available at: www.independent.co.uk/news/people/angela-merkel-on-facebook-its-nice-to-have-it-like-its-nice-to-have-a-decent-washing-machine-10301726.html (accessed 8 June 2015).

Health+Care (2015), “Five minutes with Dr Geraldine Strathdee, NHS England national clinical director, mental health”, Commissioning, Vol. 13, May, p. 10.

Issmer, C. and Wagner, U. (2015), “Perceived marginalization and aggression: a longitudinal study with low-educated adolescents”, British Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 54 No. 1, pp. 1-18.

Marks, N. (2013), “Five Ways to Wellbeing”, Making the Case for Mental Wellbeing, Academy of Social Sciences, London, pp. 5-6.

Mathias, K., Kermode, M., San Sebastian, M., Korschorke, M. and Goicolea, I. (2015), “Under the banyan tree – exclusion and inclusion of people with mental disorders in rural North India”, BMC Public Health, Vol. 15 No. 446, pp. 1-11.

Mehta, N., Croudace, T. and Davies, S.C. (2015), “Public mental health: evidence-based priorities”, Lancet, Vol. 385 No. 9976, pp. 1472-75.

NICE (2015), Violence and Aggression: Short-term Management in Mental Health, Health and Community Settings, ISBN: 978-1-4731-1234-6, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, London.

Time to Change (2014), “Attitudes to mental illness 2013 Research Report”, London, TNS BMRB.